2026 DUTCH EUROPEAN SWIMMING TRIALS
- July 2nd – July 5th
- Tongelreep National Swimming Centre, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
- LCM (50m)
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- Day 1 Recap | Day 2 Recap
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Day three of the Dutch Nationals was highlighted by the women’s and men’s 100 freestyle events. Newly minted world record holder Marrit Steenbergen won the women’s event in 51.82. This swim was a little more than a tenth off her world record time of 51.68 from last week’s Sette Colli Trophy.
She split 24.93/26.89 to win the event by two seconds over Milou van Wijk‘s 53.63 for the silver medal. This will give Steenbergen the 1st, 3rd, and 4th fastest times in history and the event and she remains the only person who has ever broken 52 seconds on multiple occasions.
Top 5 Performances in History
- Marrit Steenbergen (NED) — 51.68 (2026)
- Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) — 51.71 (2017)
- Marrit Steenbergen (NED) — 51.82 (2026)
- Marrit Steenbergen (NED) — 51.86 (2026)
- Anna Moesch (USA) — 51.94 (2026)
The men’s 100 freestyle went to Sean Niewold, who has been having an exceptional season so far, in 47.97 with splits of 23.19/24.78 to win the event by about a second over Merlin Belmon‘s 48.90 in 2nd place. He was slightly faster in prelims, swimming 47.80 in prelims.
This swim marked Niewold’s first time under 48 seconds in the event, taking three tenths off the 48.14 mark he swam in June of 2024. He now sits just over a tenth off the Dutch record of 47.68 set by Pieter van den Hoogenband in August of 2008.
The other highlight of the session was Giovanni Phillipson, who swam 25.15 in the men’s 50 backstroke to take down the Dutch Youth Record in the event. The former record stood for almost 30 years, being set initially by Laurent Bams back in August of 1996.
In the 200 breaststroke events, Caspar Corbeau and Tes Schouten both picked up their first European Championships qualifying time. Schouten stopped the clock in 2:21.71, the 4th fastest time in the world this year behind Kate Douglass‘ 2:20.86 from December.
2025-2026 LCM Women 200 BREAST
Evans
2:19.70
| 2 | Evgenia Chikunova | RUS | 2:20.59 | 06/09 |
| 3 | Kate Douglass | USA | 2:20.86 | 12/06 |
| 4 | Tes Schouten | NED | 2:21.71 | 07/04 |
| 5 | Mona McSharry | IRL | 2:22.22 | 04/10 |
Corbeau swam 2:08.75 to win the men’s 200 breaststroke by two seconds over Kenneth Bock. Dutch record holder Arno Kamminga finished 3rd, missing the qualifying time of 2:10.30.
This was just off his season best of 2:08.50 from the Mare Nostrum stop in Barcelona which currently ranks 4th in the world this season.
Paulo Strehlke Delgado was the final Dutch event winner of the day, swimming 15:18.99 to win the men’s 1500 freestyle by more than 40 seconds over 2nd place finisher Jaan Pasko’s 16:02.69.
The final two events of the day went to international athletes. Hungary’s Eszter Szabo Feltothy swam 4:43.33 in the women’s 400 IM to set the top time with Marte Hieke van der Kamp swimming 4:54.17 to finish 3rd.
Ukraine’s Ihor Troianovskyi swam 1:58.44 in the men’s 200 fly to be the top swimmer by two seconds over Dutch athlete Hendrik van der leest‘s 2:00.11 for 2nd place overall.
Dutch Qualifiers Through Day 3
Men’s
- Merlin Belmon — 100 free, 200 free
- Caspar Corbeau — 200 breast
- Koen de Groot — 50 breast
- Hendrik van der Leest — 200 fly
- Nikodim Markovic –– 50 back
- Sean Niewold — 100 free, 50 fly
- Giovanni Phillipson — 50 back
Women’s
- Kim Busch — 50 fly
- Imani de Jong — 100 free, 200 free
- Jinth Engelse — 50 fly
- Tessa Giele — 50 back, 50 fly
- Marte Hieke van der Kamp — 400 free, 1500 free
- Evy Rozeboom — 200 fly
- Tes Schouten — 100 breast, 200 breast
- Marrit Steenbergen — 100 free, 50 back, 100 back
- Milou van Wijk — 100 free
- Maaike de Waard — 50 back, 100 back
Maybe she’s exploring a new set design, 2×100 on 10,080 min, active recovery.
Max Verstappen of swimming
With steenbergen, Mollie and Moesch will settle for silver lol
Sure, if World Championship or Olympics were to be held this year.
I’d wait for Euros, CGs, Pan Pacs and US Nats before saying anything confident about who’s in the lead…
No relay team though
Is that confirmed, I would have had them for favourites?
She’s doing a Cate Campbell, but with 51s.
Absolutely monstrous.
It’s a shame World Championship didn’t come this year.
This is much more impressive because it’s a flat start
Per usual, you missed the point.
Cate Campbell swam 52s almost everytime she swam. She still has the record for the most 52s swims even though she retired few years back.
Now, instead of 52s, Steenbergen is doing a Cate Campbell with 51s, meaning she is swimming 51s almost everytime she swims 100 free.
Excuse me, Miss Cate is the one and only 50 point rolling start swimmer
For now…
The biggest difference between her and Mollie O is the first 50 where she is more than half a second faster than Mollie .. and Mollie is only 0.10 faster than her in that second 50 coming home so there’s no way Mollie can beat her as she’s too far behind in the first 50
Give Mollie time.
Mollie is 4 years younger than Marrit I think.
Well let’s not forget Anna Moesch from the USA is only 21 and already doing 51.9 so I don’t consider it an age thing necessarily.
And Molly has been 52.0 is a 2 time world champion, and hasn’t raced tapered yet this season.
Chill out and wait and see what happens 🤷♂️
You’re getting emotional when I’m simply stating actual swimming facts .. if only swimming races are won by making excuses ?
Actually you made a great point, she hasn’t raced enough this season is probably part of the problem of why she can’t work out that first 50 split
This WR will change hands a couple more times by year’s end.
No.
Gretchen walsh of 100 freestyle lol
wrong gretchen is more then a second faster then anyone else in hostory and has more then 10 swims faster then anyone else in history
You’re talking 100 fly yes? Because I too would like to see Gretchen excel in the 100 free, I mean at ‘best in the world’ level, but I’m thinking she can’t afford the commitment or maybe there’s something lacking in her technique for it in particular…maybe the turn or transition from underwater back to the stroke. One of the things I’ve noticed about Marrit’s latest world-beating swims, is how on point that is…she’s like surfacingwell ahead of the rest, and straight to power stroking